GM and Chysler Bankruptcies

[kandrathe]

But in the short run, the void will be filled by Ford and Saturn for the I have to have American even though they suck. And Honda, Toyota, BMW, Volkswagon, maybe Tata, and Fiat for the folks who just want a car that works.

GM produced 3,382,315 vehicles in 2005, and Chrysler made 1,652,703 vehicles. I foresee a near term shortage in manufactured vehicles. 2nd place was Ford with 2,965,872 vehicles. What most people don't realize is that Ford, who got in to the cheap borrowing before the "liquidity crisis" :ph34r:will probably run into financial trouble within the next year as well. The big three produce about 80% of the vehicles produced in North America.

So the big question I have is; where will the production capacity come from to step in and provide North America with automobiles? The net effect of the scarcity will be to drive up the up the price of new and used automobiles sharply. That is, beyond the normal 10 to 20% needed to adhere to the new CAFE standards, and add in hybrid duel power systems. But, hey, in the Obama vision of the future we will all be running around in electric golf carts. But, I don't see anyone with the ability to pump out 9 million golf carts either. I don't see mass transit picking up the slack either. So, the automotive industry crisis of 2009 will become the transit crisis of 2015 or so once enough old cars hit the junk yards. So, my horse cart theory starts to look more viable. Yes?

GM failed, it should be handled like any other company that fails.

And, it wasn't.

You want free market and competition, you have to accept that even the best can fail. The government should stay out of it as much as possible. The courts are set-up to handle it.

I agree. Much like the churning in the Airline industry, the ones that succeed will be the ones who figure out how to keep their labor costs competitive. GM in its old incarnation was a huge social welfare system for auto workers, where government and the industry colluded to maintain the status quo well past its financial viability.

As to Naders "congress should have reviewed". Maybe, but only to the extent that any owner / shareholder / bond holder is.

Or, as Jon Stewart said, "We own GM! And, its only $30 billion for a 60% of a negative $90 billion. Why didn't you say that before? I'm so glad we bought this company."